What Event You Should Do

August 10, 2012

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A few members of our family were answering the question: If you could compete in any Olympic sporting event, what would it be?  My first response was, of course, the premier event – the triple jump. Setting that aside, I got thinking that, as an engineer, I could figure out what event in which to compete. Here is my reasoning.

The goal is to win a gold medal. And even though the gold medals in these Olympics are only 1.34% gold, there is something to be said for the honor and prestige of winning, I guess.

My thought is that I would want to compete in an event that has the smallest difference between the third and first place finisher. I could make this the sixth and first, or the tenth and first. But I will stay with the third place to the first place, just to demonstrate my engineering solution. The reason to choose this approach is that I would like the best chance to move up to first place, thinking that I will not start in first. So, as we consider just track and field events (the original Olympics), and look at some of the times and distances for various competitions that were completed in this year’s Olympics, we can see which event it would be easiest to move up by calculating the percent of time or distance that the third place was compared to the first place. Of course, for distance events, one wants higher numbers, for time, lower. Therefore, the percent of the lower place score will be below 100% in distance events and above 100% in time, so we will compare the difference from 100%.

Here are the results (all time in seconds, distances in meters):

Event 1st 3rd % Diff % 3rd off 1st
100 m 9.63 9.79 101.66% 1.66%
200 m 19.32 19.84 102.69% 2.69%
400 m 43.94 44.52 101.32% 1.32%
800 m 100.91 102.53 101.61% 1.61%
1500 m 214.08 215.13 100.49% 0.49%
10000 m 1650.42 1651.43 100.06% 0.06%
110 m Hurdles 12.92 13.12 101.55% 1.55%
400 m Hurdles 47.63 48.1 100.99% 0.99%
Shot Put 21.89 21.23 96.98% 3.02%
Discus 68.27 68.03 99.65% 0.35%
Long Jump 8.31 8.12 97.71% 2.29%
Triple Jump 17.81 17.48 98.15% 1.85%

I will now start training for the 10000 meter run. I will forget about the Shot Put.

Run the numbers. It’s the only sensible way to decide.

The Winner

August 3, 2012

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Watching the Olympics brings up a recurring discussion with my family, mainly between my wife, the non-engineer, and me, the engineer. As an engineer, I can appreciate it when things are able to be quantified and measured. Numbers are our game.

(Of course, some of these “measurements” are carried way to far by managers at work places who have no idea how statistics work and wouldn’t know a regression to the mean if it bit them on their… oops, that’s for another post.)

My wife and I will watch a race and the runner or swimmer who wins will beat the second place person by 1 or 2 or 3 hundredths of a second. This may be after racing for many minutes, and my wife, kind-hearted soul she is, would say that they all finished about the same time. “Is there really any difference between the athletes?” She would give them all gold medals.

We now have the ability to measure quite precisely the time span from the start of the race to the end in hundredths or thousandths of a second. It’s not like the old days when someone may have to make a judgment on who crossed the finish line first or touched the wall before anyone else. It is measurable and specific. One person wins, the other does not.

What I figured out, though, is that I am just as “kind-hearted” as my wife, at least as far as an engineer can be. I may be more kind-hearted because I support the system where the true winner, the absolute winner, the winner proven to be the winner, is the one who is declared the winner.

Specific, measurable, precise, and using significant digits that identify accurate results. An engineer can appreciate that.

Toy for the Future Engineer

July 27, 2012

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I was discussing a recent vacation I took to San Francisco and how I visited the Golden Gate Bridge. As an engineer, I had to visit it. (More in later posts.)

After telling this to a number of engineers, one came up to me afterwards and had something to tell me. When he was a child, his favorite toy was —- wait for it —- a model of the Golden Gate Bridge! Did I mention that he is an engineer?

Let me tell you, he was engineer back then, whether age 10, age 14, or whatever, even without the engineering degree or the PE license. Any kid who’s favorite toy was a model of a bridge…

If you are a parent, and notice that your child has some “engineering” leanings, you know what toy to look for. That child will thank you for it later.

The Thoughts of Torkus

July 20, 2012

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The top 10 thoughts of Torkus, Medieval Engineer:

10. A pulley system could lift the stones for the castle more efficiently than making the peasants stand on each others’ shoulders.

9. Clean water systems could really help with all this pestilence.

8. These times would benefit from an engineering handbook with equations for all my thoughts.

7. Why won’t the fair maidens be impressed with how I can use my abacus?

6. Task for tomorrow: create wastewater treatment facility so people will quit urinating in the streets.

5. I wish electricity was invented so that I could design an build a electrical grid. These Dark Ages are DARK.

4. There has got to be an equation that calculates the ideal ratio between a castle wall and the castle area. What use that would be, I don’t know.

3. I know how to impress the fair maidens. I can develop an algorithm that will determine their weight from measurements of their head, bust, waist, hips and calfs. They will consider me wonderful.

2. Pestilence could be reduced with the help of engineering – if only allowed to help. Then the fair maidens would be mine.

1. At least the mud from the pathetic condition of the roads fills in the potholes.

MacGyver Was an Engineer

July 13, 2012

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As mentioned in other posts, engineers are not portrayed all that well by the entertainment industry. They are typically seen as nerd-ish eggheads, boring, bland, and definitely not flashy. Is that us? The notable exception outside of sci-fi to this portrayal (sort of) is MacGyver. To be fair, I don’t think they ever actually stated that MacGyver was an engineer, but he approached situations as an engineer would and solved many of the world’s problems like an engineer.

For those too young to know of him, MacGyver was a technology-oriented guy that could use items like a gum wrapper, a paper clip, and duct tape, and either fix a car that was beyond repair to the most talented mechanic, or defuse an atomic bomb. Yes, he was that good. He solved problems with whatever he had. He had to be resourceful and always thinking. Deep down, he was an engineer.

I will admit that there is one thing MacGyver did that engineers typically do not. Attract women. He ended up being way too cool and a little too non-engineering-ish by having a softer, relational side of him. But, that being overlooked, he was a great example of how the engineer sees himself. The problem-solver, with technical skills and insight into how to get things done. And maybe a little cool.

Can engineers have a great role model like that without the entertainment industry ruining it? No. The entertainment spoils that, too, by spoofing him on SNL and in a B-movie.

I don’t care. I still consider myself a MacGyver.

T or F

June 29, 2012

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T or F. Definitely T.

This is not in reference to true or false, but to the difference between how people operate according to various personality profiles. We discussed them at work this week, so it is on my mind – and I am thinking about them.

T is for Thinking. F is for Feeling. This is likely the strongest of the personality traits that are “measured” by these tests. A strong second is probably the introvert/extrovert scale. There are a few engineers which are actually outgoing. They are the ones in engineering sales jobs.

But, for T or F, engineers are almost all Thinking. Remember the mantra we have discussed elsewhere. Engineers don’t feel. Engineers think. When a person thinks about going into engineering but is feeling-oriented, either a) he goes absolutely crazy and ends up living in the wild with polar bears, or b) he becomes an architect.

The application is, again, never ask an engineer how he “feels” about something. It simply is not the thing to do.

The Sport for Engineers

June 22, 2012

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Last week, I should have informed you about the biggest sporting event of the summer. No, not the Olympics. No, not the NBA finals or the Stanley Cup series.

The most spectacular sporting event of the summer took place last week on the campus of University of Nevada, Reno. It was (are you sitting down?) – the American Society of Civil Engineer’s Concrete Canoe Competition. You may think, “Hmmm, concrete is not usually the stuff of canoes. Wouldn’t it sink?” You may be right. But given their ingenuity, making the material lighter, improving on the design of the canoe, and, of course, using brute force in canoeing, engineers from numerous universities built and raced canoes made out of concrete! It was particularly special this year, being the 25th annual competition. You can read all about it at this link:

Concrete Canoe Competition

You will see that points were awarded in various stressful parts of the competition to add up to determine the overall winner, but individual teams got plaques in area like, “Best Design Paper”, “Women’s Slalom/Endurance Race”, and, likely the most scary of all for the engineers, “Best Oral Presentation”. But some scholarship money is on the line, so know that the engineers gave it all for the glory of being crowned Concrete Canoe Champion. (Unfortunately, the trophy, which weighs in excess of 700 pounds is never taken home by the winning team.)

California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo won the competition this year. Congratulations!

Don’t tell me engineers don’t know how to have fun.

The Creative, Green, Fun Side of Engineers

June 15, 2012

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Some may think that engineers are often not incredibly creative, except for finding some bizarre, convoluted way to “solve” a problem. Some may wonder if engineers are really that interested in saving the environment. Some may think engineers are not all that fun. Well, if you are any one of those, it’s time to rethink your view of the engineer.

To combat all these views of engineers, we turn to Bellingham, WA, where the Public Works Department has written a new specification for the use of recycled material in non-structural concrete, thus the green nature of engineers. The creative side comes out since they are using a new material that is being recycled. The fun aspect of engineers is what that material is. The material now allowed to be recycled as part of the aggregate in non-structural concrete in Bellingham is: toilets.

But beyond mere theory, according to a recent edition of the publication Equipment World, a sister publication to Better Roads and Aggregates Manager (I kid you not), Bellingham recently included 400 used toilet seats in one of their sidewalk and path projects. Most will enjoy the name for this new type of concrete: Poticrete.  The project manager stated, “We did it because it was the right thing – and it was fun.” I’ve said this before – engineers know how to have fun!

He also said, and here I will confess that I am not sure if this comment was meant to come out this way, but he said, “We are not only using toilets, but looking into capturing a bigger waste stream.”

This may well change some of the non-engineers view of the engineer as they consider Poticrete. The engineer is green. The engineer can be creative. But most of all, the engineer is FUN!

For those that think I have possibly made all this up, please visit: The Story on Poticrete (The photo of the toilet seat that is bragging about Poticrete is worth the price of admission there.)

Giving the kids a bath:

June 8, 2012

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An engineer’s approach to raising children, especially in the realm of teaching them how the world works, will set an engineer apart from all other types of people. Here is an example, and I don’t mind saying, from my life. OK, I am proud of this one. When my son was two years old, I decided that when we opened the drain at the end of a bath, there would be none of this, “Bye-bye, water.” Wouldn’t he wonder where it’s going? Shouldn’t he know that engineers clean up that water before it returns to our environment? Won’t all these types of questions confuse him? So, I taught my son as any good engineer father would. When I asked him where the water was going, he would state emphatically, “To the wastewater treatment facility.”

Of course, I conjectured later that the images viewed in our minds were likely quite different. I had settling tanks, clarifiers, and anaerobic digesters in mind. I am fairly certain he just thought of the “wais wotter treemnt fasility” as  big blob of something under the house. That may or may not have contributed to the nightmares he had as a child. But he learned about engineers, and that is what was important.

Apps for the Engineer

June 1, 2012

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There are many apps that engineers like to have on their smart phones. One of the best ones would be one from a category that not only helps the engineer calculate stuff, a favorite past time of the engineer, but also helps the engineer remain frugal.

The class of apps we will mention today is check-splitting apps. These are great! We have mentioned in previous posts that an engineer would not want to split a bill evenly, especially if he got the cheaper meal. Whether it is 20 cents cheaper, or, refraining from a drink and extra sides, a few dollars difference, the engineer will be glad to take the bill when it comes – in order to split it evenly and fairly and so that he will not pay more than he needs. These apps can split between any number of people, add whatever percent for a tip, and, I believe, find cubed roots. (OK, maybe not the last one.)

So, ask your coworker or husband who is an engineer if they have an app like this on their smart phone, and if not, get it for him. You will feel so glad you did the next time you go out and he says, “Honey, you owe $11.24 for your meal.”

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